What is the general thought on bracketing for a tournament? Would you guys rather fill out a card and then go to your table where they then make up the brackets or would you rather turn in your card and the promotor makes the brackets prior to your division being called?
It may sound like the same thing but I want to know, based on your experiences in tournaments, which sytem seems to work the fastest and is more efficient. I am leaning towards eveyone keeping their cards until their division is called then the ref makes up the brackets. This will eliminate the long wait the morning of the tournament while the brackets are being finalized.
Having everyone register prior to the event is NOT an option. It does not seem to be an option because 70% of the people register the day of and if we only did prereg I am concerned that we will lose 20% of our registrants. Thanks for any opinions ADVICE for running a competitior friendly tournament, etc.
Any ideas for a competitor friendly tournament, any aspect of the tournament is appreciated.
Free registration. free beer, and women is not an option either. I bet it would be the biggest tournament in the history of BJJ thought. Hmmmmmmm could almost be worth it.
If you do pre-reg only, people will do it. Makes the tournament experience so much better for everyone involved. 
Honestly I help with events all over the USA doing bracketing and setup and to be honest events need to move to all pre registration. Not only for time on brackets but so you can alert the folks that have no matches. That way you can find the matches and not have to struggle day of. It will work it just takes event coordinators to say no day of reg anymore than a year from now it people will be familiar with it.
I think an advantage of the IBJJF way of doing it is that you can look up and see how many people are in your would be division before deciding to sign up. That's beneficial for everyone at Rooster and Ultra Heavy as well as those in Senior 1, Senior 2 or Senior 3 divisions.
THanks for all of the replies. I agree 100% that pre reg is the way to go. Unfortunately I am worried that by demanding it to be pre reg we may lose 10-20% of our competitors.
It may be time to bite the bullet and try it though.
BUT in general, for those of u that have helped set up tournaments, what works better? Competitors keeping their cards or turning them in at registration?
Thanks
Better to lose 10-20%, but run a great event than get more sign ups and have a poorly run event. Depending on the competitors to show up on time and be at the correct weight is hoping for a lot.
As someone who competes fairly often, I really enjoy the events where everything is scheduled ahead. I don't enjoy showing up, hoping I get a match and then waiting all day to see who - if anyone - shows up that I can go against.
I helped coordinate Jean Jacques recent tournament here in LA and we did everything via Pre-Registration. We developed our website to do the following:
* Provide an athlete list that updates in real time. The moment you register your name is added to the athlete list. This gives all competitors an opportunity to see who is in their division.
* Online Bracketing generator. We wrote our own bracketing software - no hand writing brackets, and like the IBJJF we post brackets electronically the day before the event.
* Post a schedule several days before the event.
Everything is mapped out for the competitors so there are no surprises. This not only makes it convenient for the competitors, but running the event is much smoother because you have an agenda that has been pre-planned. All you need to do is follow the schedule.
A tournament is like a restaurant - one bad experience and you probably lost a customer forever...
pre registration is the way to go. tournament will go smoother, faster, and is far better for the staff. People will learn to register or not grapple.
jjfighteromaha - pre registration is the way to go. tournament will go smoother, faster, and is far better for the staff.
It's also better for the competitors - no waiting around while brackets get drawn up. I fail to see why everyone else has to suffer because a few people can't organise themselves to pre register.
James
well its unanamous. Everyone wants prereg. Thanks for the input.
Just do pre-reg please.
o you honestly think that 20% of people just "show up" to a tournament with no intention to compete and then -at the last second- they decide they want to borrow their teammate's gi or rashguard and get on the mats?
Look at what people complain about regarding your local GQ or NAGA. I'll save you the trouble: these tournaments have an organization process resembling someone taking all of the names of competitors, times, mat numbers, and divisions, then placed them into a Yahtzee cup which is promptly shaken and emptied into a large blender set to "Liquify", only to be spilled onto a wheel of fortune which is in turn spun at a mind numbing velocity to later be sorted through by drunken chimpanzees.